F 129 

co^: i' LAKE PLACID 

AND 
AN EXPERIMENT IN INTELLIGENCE 



I.EPRINTED FROM 

THE ADIRONDACKS 

COPYRIGHT 1917 BY THE CENTURY CO. 
BY 

T. MORRIS LONGSTRETH 




Price, $2.50 net 

NEW YORK 
THE CENTURY CO. 



Fn^ 



^1^1 



Our library has a shelf full of books on the 
Adirondacks but by common consent Long- 
streth's is the best and most enjoyable of them 
all. Since its publication we have told all in- 
quirers for something about the Great North 
Woods to get Longstreth, and many of our 
members have chosen it as the best possible 
gift for any friend who wishes to know more 
of this marvelous region. 

Melvil Dewey, President, 
Lake Placid Club. 



CHAPTER X 

LAKE PLACID AND AN EXPERIMENT IN 
INTELLIGENCE 

OCTOBER had had but a short start of us, 
and the sun not any before we were pointed 
toward Placid. October's start was a bold one. 
The clear night had left a film of ice on the smaller 
ponds ; tiny streams breathed mistily in the woods, 
and along the road the frost lay audaciously in 
wait for the sunbeams. Clear coffee and fine air 
put adventure in our blood, and our pace smart- 
ened as we went. Only Luggins seemed reluctant. 
Has nobody tried cotfee with horses in the effort 
to eradicate a certain inertness? 

"We were ready for adventure, but adventure 
never retired more coquettishly from road-curve 
to road-curve. We ceased to gaze wistfully 
ahead. No fox crossed in front of us ; the birds 
had gone to Dixie. The whole landscape was 
waiting for something that did not transpire. 
Apertures in the woodway gave views of forget- 
me-not and forest green. The scents of sheltered 
sun patches drifted by us. But never a sound ex- 
cept of Luggins striking an occasional stone in 

231 



THE ADIRONDACKS 

the sandy road! So Lynn and I fell into an ap- 
propriate silence. It was no time, we instinc- 
tively felt, for incompetent comment on tlie uni- 
verse. 

Our map plainly pointed to tlie route througli 
Gabriels, Harriettstown, Saranac Lake, and Eay 
Brook as the most plausible, even though it stood 
Luggins a good twenty-five miles. But to round 
Whiteface by Franklin Falls and up through the 
Wilmington Notch had the advantage of scenery 
and an extra day in flannel shirts. That decided 
us. 

To make a bare breast of it, a haze of distrust 
fell on us when we thought of surrendering to the 
club. To be sure, the Lake Placid Club had long 
been a name to us. Hearsay and inquiry had de- 
veloped its reputation till we had decided upon 
the ordeal of staying there a week. The neces- 
sary cards were in my treasure bag. But for all 
that, in our separate souls we hated to diminish 
our summer freedom by three nights in a bed. It 
was not that we had been too proud to wash ; we 
had despised to advertise in starch. All summer 
we had collaborated with comfort and wood-sense. 
We supposed that in a club, comfort must disap- 
pear before convention. Even for the purpose of 
investigation, which was a purpose become dear 
to both of us, we loathed the idea of being hustled 
into appearances for a club's sake. To forsake 



AN EXPERIMENT IN INTELLIGENCE 233 

pine-needles for polished floors, an open fire for 
a radiator, camp costume for evening-dress — 
these anticipations threw us into such a ditch of 
despondency that we seized upon the detour with 
vehemence. Our lightened hearts took us far 
down the Saranac. 

Of all the memories of that day, the green 
ranges ahead, the high ridges on the right, dip- 
ping to let Whiteface look over, the falls, the vast 
landscapes of brilliant foliage, the spell of the 
winding road, of all these entrancements there is 
one that struck deeper than all — the slim, elusive 
stream of the river, curving in amber shadows, 
lying at the feet of pointed firs, rippling in a 
break of light. Noon in such a place is more beau- 
tiful than moonlight in many another. 

"We kept on till mountain shadows and airs, 
which shivered through disrobing birches, warned 
us of the piles of fire-wood needful for a long 
night. 

In the morning my thermometer registered 
twelve. Such tricks will clear air play at the alti- 
tude of two thousand feet. But we were not cold. 
If the breeze bit, his wound healed quickly. Lug- 
gins courted the ashes, but we each chopped a log 
in two and preached him a sermon upon the text. 
He listened in repose. 

More exhilarating than winning bets was it to 
wash one's face in the brooklet. The glow of the 



234 THE ADIRONDACKS 

new sun slanted through forests of gold-leaf, for 
we had tented in a grove of beech. A breath was 
life, full and undisguised. And later, when 
smells of breakfast filled the wood, I doubt 
whether Adam's personal recollections of the new 
world could have been happier or more vivid. 

Up from the Saranac down to the Ausable, then 
the flank of Marble Mountain, a turn to the right, 
and we were confronted by the Notch. The "Wil- 
mington Notch is the result of the west branch of 
the Ausable River having its own way, cheese- 
knife fashion. It has also had its own time, for 
these are very hard mountains to cut through. It 
is still going at the job with energy. Above the 
notch it chatters, becomes more argumentative, 
and soon downright passionate, till in a great out- 
burst it thunders down and over at High Falls. 
And all the while it is gnawing at the Notch. Only 
a long way below the flume does it flow out into 
carved meadows, forgetful of precipices, black 
rocks, and the tangle of white waters. 

But more interesting than the falls and the 
gorge was the cold flow of air from the floor of 
the higher valley before us, and the sight of icicles 
that would so soon flower into the great winter 
stalactites. Winter had already established his 
depot. We were glad to come up into the smiling 
sun. 

As the mountain flanks parted, we came upon 



AN EXPERIMENT IN INTELLIGENCE 237 

new and fairer views than any we had seen, splen- 
did prospects of valley floor, curving river, and 
distant ranges. Our hearts softened toward the 
club that could revel in such possessions. 

In barest terms the Placid valley is a low-undu- 
lating river-bottom, checkered with farms and 
woodland, and walled in on three sides by moun- 
tains, on the fourth by a brace of lakes. But the 
barest terms or the most minute descriptions 
would fail to convey the circle of landscape from 
the eye to the ear. So I can best report on 
an inspiration that fell upon us that autumn 
afternoon. 

We had come on our road to the man-proof 
fence that surrounds the Club precincts. A little 
runt of a mountain, which we afterwards found 
was called Cobble, rose invitingly at our backs. 
The sun slept on its bare top, which did not look 
more than ten minutes above us. We determined 
to spy out the land, tied Luggins to the gate, and 
in eight minutes by the watch were sitting on the 
top. 

It was the most astounding eight minutes' 
worth of climb that I have ever done. And many 
times since have I been up Cobble, once with thun- 
der stalking down the valley, often with the 
spruces showing black against deep snow, and al- 
ways there has been some measure of surprise at 
such a view from such a tiny hill. That first 



238 THE ADIRONDACKS 

largess of unexpected beauty laid hold of our 
hearts. We lay there gulping down the distrac- 
tions of its variety. 

Below us, calf-size, stood Luggins, patient with 
his pack, on the road that wound from the Notch 
which partly showed to the northeast. The Notch 
was steeped in shadow ; but the sheer range of the 
Sentinel Mountains, still lighted by the level sun, 
streamed southward from it, making a barrier all 
along the east of the valley, an abrupt limit to its 
beautiful floor. On the south the greater moun- 
tains, Elephant, Saddleback, Basin, Haystack, 
Tahawus, Algonquin, and colder Iroquois stood 
remote, but clearly high. On the west nearer 
mountains continued the valley 's wall to the break 
wherein the Saranacs lie. With the proper sun 
their glimmer can be caught. Again to the north- 
west McKenzie, Moose, and St. Armand rose pro- 
tectingly. In the north Whiteface, always noble, 
dominated. At his foot lay Lake Placid, balsam- 
girt, islanded. 

This then is the skeleton of the view from Cob- 
ble. But the form and flesh of the encircling 
mountains, the flow and color of the valley plain, 
these no drivel of words can in the least reveal. 

Eeluctantly, we rose from the rocks. And 
shadowly we came down through the evergreen to 
Luggins, and raggedly did we file through the Club 
grounds, a maze of pine and balsam, and between 



AN EXPERIMENT IN INTELLIGENCE 239 

snug cottages to Forest Hall. We presented our 
cards of introduction from a friend. At once 
were we received as guests within a family. 

It was evident that we had reached the unusual 
in clubs. Indeed, for a place where your precon- 
ception varies more widely from the reality, I 
know not where to look. Lynn confided to me 
that his first satisfaction was the broad hearth. 
We, in our flannel shirts and lumbermen's socks, 
were not stared at ; that was mine. A gentleman- 
clerk inquired after our trip, a gentleman-bell-boy 
took our knapsacks. With the courtesy of an ac- 
ceptance he refused a tip. From this marvel be- 
gan my study of the Club. I am still studying it. 

By bedtime that night Lynn and I had reached 
an acute stage of curiosity as to the genesis of an 
institution that performed so many unusual serv- 
ices for its members with such an engaging effi- 
ciency. The destiny of any enterprise depends on 
its objective, its dream, and that upon its dreamer. 
We longed to meet the person or group of persons 
who had dreamed this bold and embracing enter- 
prise into being. 

Many a time since that autumn evening has the 
Club been my home. Each time I have seen its 
significance enlarged, another of its possibilities 
brought to light. And now despite the dangers 
of cold type, — false emphasis, chiefly, — the charm 
and value of the Club are riding me into print. 



240 THE ADIRONDACKS 

If I needed excuse it would be that no summary 
of the features of the Adirondack Park would be 
complete without mention of this, its most orig- 
inal association. And if I am charged with en- 
thusiasm I can but say that no honest mention 
could ever be perfunctory. 

The Lake Placid Club was sired by a sneeze. 
For, though at the age of forty-five Melvil Dewey 
had planted and seen sprout the seeds of more 
original and useful enterprises than most Ameri- 
cans achieve at ninety, he couldn't resist the 
spasms of hay-fever. He had started, in 1876, the 
American Library Association, the American Li- 
brary Bureau, the Library Journal, the American 
Metric Bureau, and the Spelling Eeform Associa- 
tion. I have forgotten what his business was. 
Also he had married a woman who had a penchant 
for starting things too. She started the Ameri- 
can Home Economics Association. But she had 
rose-cold and she couldn't stop that. Thus be- 
tween sneezes and snuffles this efficient couple lost 
about four months a year. A birth of a son who 
might have both diseases determined them. They 
decided to start something in the Adirondacks. 

The Adirondacks has always been a good place 
for dreams. Old Mountain Phelps had one. He 
sat on a log and indulged it. If Charles Dudley 
Warner had not nosed it out, the world would 
have been little the wiser. Paul Smith had one. 



AN EXPERIMENT IN INTELLIGENCE 241 

Even with his parents upon his back, he never 
lost sight of it. He died rich and respected. Dr. 
Trudeau had one, a tremendous one. He helped 
the ailing and the unaided to health, himself 
neither rich nor in health. And Melvil Dewey 
has one: perhaps it is the biggest of all. 

Now the way of the dreamer is hard. For it is 
extremely easy to enfog your whole system with 
the beauty of your dream, vaguely hoping that it 
may sometime crystallize about your person. 
That is the way of the amateur dreamer. But 
the professional's way is different. He begins 
with some nucleus of fact, some practical act at 
hand, and wraps his dream about that, irresistibly, 
no matter how small the progress, how tedious the 
process. By this time the Deweys were no longer 
amateurs at dreams. 

Their nuclear idea was to set up a sort of uni- 
versity club in the wilderness where men from the 
colleges might assemble in summer, sneezelessly, 
and yet undivorced from the agreeable. It was 
planned for men whose incomes were not too great 
a match for their intelligences. The meals cost 
a dollar a day. During the first summer thirty 
ate them. 

They ate them in the Adirondacks only after the 
entire continent that flies the Stars and Stripes 
had been searched for a better spot. Maine, Flor- 
ida, Alaska, California, Wisconsin, Vermont, 



M2 THE ADIRONDACKS 

Michigan, New Hampshire, North Carolina — all 
had been discarded for some place in the Adiron- 
dacks, and after three more years of inquiry that 
place had not been located. But Melvil Dewey, 
once snatched from earth by an idea, was past re- 
capture. He continued hunting. 

At last he consulted Paul (who was Apollos) 
Smith, the sage and father of the Adirondacks, 
sitting, aged and bent at the top of his stairway. 
At first the old guide would not admit that there 
existed finer sites than his St. Eegis lakes and 
lands. But being pressed, he said finally, 

"Well, Dewey, everybody knows there ain't a 
finer place in the hull woods than Placid, but after 
that you 've got to come here." 

Upon those words, as in novels, the sneezer 
and wife took guide and canoe, went through the 
seven carries, climbed into their buckboard, drove 
twenty-odd miles through arching wood, and when 
they stood on that little hill by Mirror Lake and 
looked over the rolling valley to its enclosing 
ranges, they knew that their New World had been 
discovered. At that time there were few houses 
at Lake Placid. But in them dwelt the crafty. 
They demanded a thousand dollars an acre for the 
best of their land. 

In those days, 1890, any amount of land could 
have been bought for $500, $200, $50, $10 an acre, 
and the Deweys spent more summers roaming 



AN EXPERIMENT IN INTELLIGENCE 243 

about in the hopes of making a lucky strike, but 
always they returned to Placid. The crafty ones 
had raised their views on the value of their soil 
to $2500 an acre. It speaks well for the texture 
of the dream that only the best was good enough. 
Mr. Dewey got a better price at wholesale, and 
took 250 quarter-acres. At last the dream was 
housed. 

For the next twenty years the solidifying of 
shadows, the expansion on new planes took place. 
It was not without compromises, defeats, labor, 
that complete disaster was staved off. There was 
much ebb and flow of check-book, much silent sac- 
rifice, much hope. 

During the second summer the wilderness uni- 
versity club was visited by eighty guests, while 
last August there were eleven hundred guests at 
once, not counting the seven hundred employees, 
and many others disappointed for lack of room. 
Numbers, of course, mean little. Eleven hundred 
guests at Coney Island, for example, would not 
excite comment other than profane. But eleven 
hundred at a club that is still very much in the 
woods, every one of them vouched for by a mem- 
ber or his friend, and no one of whom but is in 
sympathy with the lines of club development im- 
posed by an energetic and elevating dream — 
eleven hundred guests of this kind is a triumph- 
in-sort. 



244 THE ADIRONDACKS 

I believe the clue to Mr. Dewey's dream can be 
found in something that underlay his previous 
endeavors. His names for his library associa- 
tion, his library bureau, his metric bureau, and 
all the rest were prefaced by the word American. 
It cannot have been by chance. He knew that the 
men and women who live under the flag can never 
be either satisfied with life or be true Americans 
unless they live somewhat in accord with the eter- 
nal verities, for of such was the beginning of our 
nation. It was belief in the eternal verities that 
gave America her reason for being. She feared 
God ; she was brave ; she did not disdain to labor ; 
she was frugal; she admired cleanness, honesty, 
high-thinking. 

What began as the Placid Club was, therefore, 
more than a refuge for hay-fever victims, more 
than an eating-resort for indigent intellectuals. 
It gave men breathing time in surroundings of 
haunting loveliness. It gave them a chance to 
cleanse themselves, to see things squarely, to come 
into high thoughts. And almost the only essential 
for membership was character. No matter how 
prominent or able or wealthy a man or a woman 
might be, if she or he had not that passport to 
good society, which is easier to recognize than to 
define, that person was asked to seek elsewhere 
more congenial atmospheres. And every season 
some such persons, who cannot grow accustomed 



AN EXPERIMENT IN INTELLIGENCE 247 

to life without a bar, or who mistake the spirit of 
the Club in other ways, receive such a request. 
The result is that the atmosphere is kept so un- 
hotel-like that parents who would not leave a child 
alone in a hotel for a single night have often trav- 
eled abroad, leaving their young daughters at the 
Club for all summer in entire confidence that no 
unhomelike taint will touch them. 

No person can be entertained at the Club with- 
out an introduction or invitation from a member. 
In a private card catalogue under constant re- 
vision every guest is rated on his merits and 
marked by letters. If he belongs to class C, he is 
a common client, welcome, neither specially ad- 
vantageous to his fellow clubmen nor at all dis- 
advantageous. If he belongs to class B (better), 
he has some talent, some distinguishing traits that 
make him desirable. He is sought for member- 
ship. Class A includes those who are admirably 
suited to further the ideals of the club. They are 
given every inducement to join. Class D, on the 
other hand, contains the doubtful or deficient 
characters, who, if not positively discouraged from 
joining, are not invited till a further insight into 
their personalities has been obtained. Class E is 
made up of unsuitables who, if already in, must be 
eliminated; if still out, must be excluded for the 
protection of the rest. It is a pretty game. 
Thanks to the closeness of the unguessed scrutiny 



248 THE ADIRONDACKS 

and to the superior level of influence demanded, 
the easy charm of the place has not had to wane 
with growing numbers. 

An exceptional membership naturally has de- 
manded exceptional service. And before any 
clerk or bell-boy is engaged, his past is searched 
for any possible reasons why he should not be at- 
tached to the force. Engaged, he knows that how- 
ever capable he may be, a cigarette, a glass of 
beer, a deviation into profanity or vulgarity of 
any sort will send him job-hunting. In this broad 
country there are men eager for the opportunity 
to live and work under the best imaginable influ- 
ences, and the intelligent gladly deprive them- 
selves of cigars and profanity to their profit. 
They also abjure tips, but as many guests leave 
or send back parting gifts they lose nothing but 
the humiliation. Besides being better paid than 
hotel servants in like capacities, they have better 
meals, better living-rooms, recreation centers, an 
occasional motor or launch, A $20,000 staff house 
is to be built for them. And members continually 
say that they feel more comfortable knowing that 
those who minister are well cared for. 

The Club 's first distinction is character ; its sec- 
ond is excellence of equipment. In many depart- 
ments this nears perfection. Again the essentials 
have been demanded. Since neither display nor 
the nonsense of pretension figures in the expense 



AN EXPERIMENT IN INTELLIGENCE M9 

account, the club is able to focus its brains and 
resources on the items of practical advantage. 
It was supplied with the most invigorating air 
under heaven ; it secured a perfect water supply. 
Milk was a more difficult matter. Cornell experts 
found that local sources were all unsound. The 
club bought a cow and lodged her sanitarily. She 
has increased five hundredfold, and the amount of 
cream consumed a month is a matter for comment ; 
no guest is denied any lactic desire. Indeed, the 
cream and milk, the butter and eggs lay the 
foundation for a table that is deliberately the best 
possible within limits. These limits lie well 
within commonsense and yet well beyond reason- 
able desire. The range at any meal must take 
into account the oldish lady who has sat by the 
fire all afternoon and the men who have been 
mountaineering on snow-shoes. And from end to 
end each item must be of the best. I know that 
there is no hope of saying this without its sound- 
ing like an advertisement. Their pastry cooks 
must be exquisite fellows. 

Beds, the management claimed, were of the ut- 
most importance, and all the money should go into 
springs and mattresses and blankets and none 
whatever into carvings and guardian angels. The 
tired ski-er sleeps delightfully. Beds make an 
excellent hobby for club-makers. And in the in- 
firmary one can lie all day in the last luxuries of 



250 THE ADIRONDACKS 

healing if tobogganing has disabled or the intoxi- 
cation of flexible flying been overdone. 

Another extravagance is "the system of fire pro- 
tection ; $50,000 has been spent to perfect a system 
that in times of greatest drought or in the wildest 
blizzard could deluge the first flames with 2500 
gallons a minute from its system of hydrants. A 
night and day patrol is so arranged that a fire 
could never get a running start; the great fire- 
pump is kept under constant pressure; Mirror 
Lake is the supply. Fires do occur. In twenty- 
three years forty-two have broken out. But the 
system has kept the total loss under $500. Angry 
flames, indeed! 

And now of the greatest extravagance of all. 
One day Dr. Albert Shaw of the ''Review of Re- 
views ' ' asked if he might sink a couple of tomato 
cans in the garden turf to knock a white ball into. 
In such a manner the game of ten centuries' 
growth began at Lake Placid. The Club has sunk 
$200,000 in their turf. Four hundred players 
have done themselves tan on the courses in one 
day. And the difficulties begin with the choice of 
your course; there are four now, three nine-hole 
courses and one of eighteen holes, of 6300 yards, 
and two more eighteen holers of 6000 yards are al- 
ready well under way. The Club dooryard is ten 
miles long and there is always room. Nowhere 
in the world in such a setting of great woodlands, 



AN EXPERIMENT IN INTELLIGENCE 251 

shapely peaks, and passes can men follow the ball 
over courses more interestingly diversified, more 
scientifically planned. Even Lynn, whose title for 
the game is ''fugitive idiocy,'^ was soothed into 
something very like admiration for the technical 
as well as the natural beauties as explained to us 
by the creator, Mr. Dunn. 

And if this prospect does not hold you spell- 
bound, I, who talk as if the Club were the result 
of mine own vigil, — I will offer you others. There 
are forty courts for tennis and other outdoor 
games, and there is fishing away, and boating at 
home, and water-sporting, and riding and driving, 
and camping by still waters, and music and 
pageants, and four outdoor theaters, and climbs, 
and the four million acred Park in which to play 
in company with the most charming people of the 
land. And it is this last that brings me back from 
the outlay of dollars to the dream. 

How is it, one may reverently inquire, that 
granted a perfect setting, a perfected apparatus 
of enjoyment, an atmosphere of commonsense, 
warmed with culture and kept in motion by great 
wealth, — how is it that the Lake Placid Club can 
prevent itself from gradually being enwrapped 
in a cocoon of complacency, refinement, sport, and 
soullessness? This conundrum presented itself 
to us on the second day. A sample bill had been 
sent around to our room, as is the custom, so that 



252 THE ADIRONDACKS 

if there are any moments of harsh surprise they 
may come at the beginning of one's sojourn and 
not at the end. I believe I had remarked that the 
place was extraordinary. 

' ' Extraordinary ! ' ' said Lynn. * ' Well, and well 
it might be. For every day that you and Luggins 
and I pay our bill we might have a fortnight in 
the woods. It 's easy wallow for the rich, but 
some pace for the professor. You said that it w^as 
founded for the classics who 'd taken the count, 
didn't your' 

On the following day, I replied: 

* ' It is. " I had sought, met, and been conquered 
by the idealist in the room where he puts his ideals 
to hard labor. It is a room piled quite high with 
the paraphernalia of offices and doesn't look at 
all like a den of visions. It is a very practical 
idealery. And its master is big, well-set, bushy- 
browed, peering, quick; the garment of his being 
is that of a purposeful business man. Only when 
stripped for confidences do you sense the aggres- 
sive prophet. 

I am glad that I came upon the Club in its suc- 
cess, for the season of strenuous waiting is at an 
end. At the other end, a quarter of a century 
back, it would have been too easy to have said 
with the great majority, ''It is a pretty dream, but 
it will not work. ' ' 



AN EXPERIMENT IN INTELLIGENCE 253 

The core of the dream was: "by cooperation to 
secure among congenial people and beautiful natu- 
ral surroundings all the advantages of an ideal 
vacation or permanent country home.'' The con- 
genial people were the worn college professors, 
*Hhe classics who had taken the count," according 
to the irreverent Lynn. But I had not seen any 
of these about. Eosy and exuberant millionaires 
golfed in droves and hiked long distances. But 
as a retreat for the professorial elite whose 
thoughts were longer than their pocket-books the 
Club was but raggedly utilized. So little was I 
acquainted with the ways of the practical vision- 
ary that I, too, began to think that it was **easy 
wallow" for the rich and rich alone. 

Early in the dreamiest stage the young Club 
began to lose money. At a critical time one of 
Mr. Dewey's originations brought him in twenty 
times what the original Club cost, and he and his 
wife put that and the rest of their fortune into the 
dream. Thus do Holy Grailers. 

As expansion came more capital was needed, 
and without abandoning their final object, they 
called in the millionaire, the intellectual rich man, 
to make the others' paradise a possibility. The 
final object was and is a permanent foundation in 
this most lovely of all regions where the promising 
youth of the country may lay hold of inspiration 



264 THE ADIRONDACKS 

and carve it to their uses. The Club is to be, and 
is, the home of inspiration in practice. Tried in- 
tellects will gather on their sabbaticals; assem- 
blies of research will meet ; congresses of moment 
will debate in this most suitable environment. In 
the cool of summer or in the white fire of winter 
the country's best will exchange ideas before the 
open hearth. It would sound too beautiful if the 
foundation had not been laid and hardened to sup- 
port the superstructure these many years. 

See what has been done : Seventy-five hundred 
acres owned in the heart of a great and perpetual 
State park; farms, buildings, camps, sport facili- 
ties developed; a large membership culled from 
two countries, on whom is the impress of the 
Club's essential ideals; a financial incorporation 
now beyond the power of individual whim to 
change; and the creator of all this yet young 
enough to drive on with the unfinished dream. 

Emerson doubtless fed on his own dictum many 
times without divining how nourishing it would 
be to others when he said, **If a man can make 
a better book, preach a better sermon, or make a 
better mouse-trap than his neighbor, the world 
will make a beaten track to his door." 

This is the motto of the Club. And with its 
glorious text a sermon is being preached, the pur- 
port of which is health, wisdom, and good-fellow- 
ship. 



AN EXPERIMi^NT IN INTELLIGENCE 257, 

October swam over into November while Lyma 
and I lingered in the lap of bankruptcy at this 
caravansary. And when we pulled Luggins from 
his bed of enervating luxury, we three swore that 
when our chores were done, back we would come 
in time for winter sports. How my hand itches 
to be at the naming of them, if only to carry me 
back to the season when there are no tragic in- 
sects, no weeks of mist, and when the winter woods 
are fair — so fair that I cannot resist the telling, 
the trying to tell, in its own proper place I 



LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 



Press Comments on "The Adirond ^ ^^ ^ 205 393 7 ^ 

The Beooklyn Eagle: 

"Baedeker puts stars to mark the best hotels. Longstreth takes us to a different 
sort of starland — the great Adirondack Park, the glory of New York State. Only once 
in a dozen years does the jaded reviewer get a real breeze from a book. He gets it from 
The Adirondacks by T. Morris Longstreth. " 

The New York Times: 

"The book begins with a short history of the Adirondacks — geology, exploration, 
settlement, exploitation, and preservation for 'the people forever' by the law of the 
State of New York. After that the author proceeds in a leisurely course, commencing 
the narrative with his summer's beginning, wandering on through the forest, climbing 
mountains, fishing, meeting interesting lovers of the woods, coming upon a curious bit 
of history, a strange rock formation, telling the reader about it in the pleasantest, 
friendliest way. He interrupts his narrative for a delightful chapter on the animals of 
the Adirondacks. He tells the story of that famous guide Paul Smith, and then of the 
'Beloved Physician' who found his first approach to health under Paul Smith's roof 
and built his own great sanitarium in the mountains out of his determination and his 
steadfast dreams. He has a passing reference to R. L. S. at Saranac, and he tells in 
detail of the fulfilment of another dream — that of Melvil Dewey in the Lake Placid 
Club. There are other stories of the North Woods, and of men who have left some 
token of remembrance in the Adirondack Forest. And there is much word picturing of 
the different beauties of the wilderness. " 

The New Republic: \ 

" Mr. Longstreth can reflect the glories of trout-fishing and swimming. He has the 
insinuating charm of the born walker. There is a real provocative quality to his de- 
scriptions of the splendor of the autumn woods, the real naturalist's affection for the 
animals — the wildcats, fox, woodchuck, squirrel, the birds. A generous number of 
photographs tempt the neophyte explorer, and for those who want to be explicit the 
Century Co. has furnished a thoroughly informative map. " 

The New York Tribune: 

"The next best thing to catching a trout is to talk trout gossip with a group of 
addicts. The next best thing to camping in the North Woods is to read Mr. Long- 
streth's book about the great Adirondack Park. To those who have fished or hunted 
there, have pitched their tents on the shores of some beautiful mountain lake, or even 
have spent a summer vacation in one of the numerous hotels or camps in the great 
forest park, it will bring back pleasant memories. To those who have never yet visited 
that magnificent region of forests, lakes, mountains and rivers, it should furnish the 
incentive to get out into the woods for a while and let the world go hang. " 

The Philadelphia Ledger: 

"Imagine a section of woodland wilderness larger than the State of Connecticut, 
girdled and laced with a thousand lakes, shouldered into the skies by hundreds of moim- 
tain ranges; then follow the wanderings of two congenial nature lovers on a fascinating 
journey through every nook and cranny of this extensive garden of nature, and you 
have T. Morris Longstreth's book, The Adirondacks, conveniently crowded into a 
nutshell. " 



8vo. S70 Pages. 32 Illustrations. Price $2.SO 



At All Bookstores TUfC ^^17 WTI Tl? V Cf\ 363 Fourth Avenue 

Published by 1 ni-j V^C<ll 1 UIX I V^V-f. New York City 



